Vauxhall tuning specialist Thorney Motorsport plan to enter a pair of NGTC-specification Vauxhall Insignia’s in the later half of the 2011 season, it has been revealed.
The team had previously tried to enter the BTCC with both BMW and Vauxhall entries but they never materialised. However with the BTCC’s new regulations reducing the costs to both develop a car and compete at the top level, Thorney are renewing their attempts to get onto the grid.
“Its been a dream of mine for many years to run in the BTCC, we’ve come close in the last two years but for a variety of reasons we didn’t make it, this time we are definite!” said the owner of Thorney Motorsport, John Thorne.
“The new NGTC regulations are just too good to ignore, as a team we always build our own race cars rather than running someone else’s and the new regulations allow both the budget to be kept reasonable as well as allow some engineering flair that we thrive on.
“The Insignia is going to be a challenge, its a big chassis and we know that weight will be an issue initially but the size is also to our benefit, the width of the shell is such that we won’t need to resort to huge wheel arch extensions which whilst looking good don’t do you any favours in terms of aerodynamics.”
Despite the company’s business interests lying firmly with Vauxhall and BMW tuning parts, Thorne admitted that the entry will not have any official backing from Vauxhall.
“Racing needs a commercial platform to be successful, by partnering with our Performance Centres and the wider Vauxhall retailer network we can generate a real ROI to both business’s without the need for formal manufacturer backing, we won’t be a factory team but Vauxhall are pretty happy we’ve chosen to race their product – so long as we do well of course!”
The team plan to be on the grid by the final rounds at Silverstone October, although they haven’t ruled out entering earlier if the car is developed in time.
“We aren’t going to rush this, developing a new race car takes time and we won’t run it until we can be sure it will be competitive,” added Thorne. “With NGTC still being so new we think there are a great many things still to learn from being on the sidelines rather in the full glare of the public.”
No announcement has been made regarding the team’s choice of engine. As the chassis are built and developed through the coming year the team will be posting blogs and videos on their website at www.thorneymotorsport.co.uk.
The team’s decision to enter the championship with yet another new model will mean that thirteen models of car will have been represented on the BTCC grid in 2011 – more than any other touring car series in the world.